Championship Weekend Review

With QPR picking up another useful point against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, Vital QPR looks at the rest of the games in the Championship.

Birmingham City 1 - 1 Burnley

Burnley held promotion hopefuls Birmingham City to a draw at St Andrews and in truth it could have been far better for the Clarets had they taken their chances. Alex McLeish believed his side didn`t 'turn up` in the first half and they were duly punished by Martin Paterson`s 17th goal of the season.

Accomplished play down the left found Paterson on the far post who placed home with relative comfort from close range to hand the visitors the advantage.

Birmingham were once again disappointing the home supporters and had an outstanding piece of luck to get them back into the fixture. A terrible backpass to Brian Jensen saw the stopper labelled the 'beast` send a header straight into the path of Kevin Phillips.

Super Kev doesn`t need asking twice as he swivelled and placed home his 13th goal of the campaign, a rare shining light in a campaign littered with inconsistency at St Andrews.

Doncaster Rovers showed they have the stomach for the fight as they edged a five goal thriller at Bloomfield Road. Rovers have boosted their survival hopes in recent weeks going undefeated since late December and this latest win steered them four points clear of the drop zone.

They were behind when Welsh international David Vaughan curled in a sublime left footed effort into the bottom left hand corner. Anything he can do Brian Stock can equal as he equalised from a fizzing right footed effort into the bottom left hand corner.

After the break Sam Hird tapped home the first of his career to give Rovers the lead shortly after the break, before the direct running of DJ Campbell saw him slam the ball into the bottom left hand corner for his fourth goal in five games for Blackpool.

James Coppinger has proven himself a player for the big matches for Doncaster and his goal won the game for the visitors as he cut inside from the right and fired past Matthew Gilks at his near post. There was still time for Blackpool debutante Charlie Adam to see red for kicking out in frustration.

Coventry City took full advantage of an unconvincing Wolves performance as they continue to stutter at the summit of the Championship. Wolves haven`t kept a clean sheet in the league this year and got off to a bad start when Michael Doyle scored his second in two games to hand the hosts the lead.

Doyle poked the ball home in front of the travelling supporters after 25 minutes to hand the Sky Blues first blood in an evenly contested local derby. After the break Sam Vokes hauled the visitors level after he climbed highest from a pin-point cross to slam his header past Keiren Westwood.

Wolves` faltering rearguard was caught out barely three minutes later when Jordan Henderson played a sublime through ball to Leon McKenzie and the former Norwich City man clipped the ball goal-bound as it trickled over the line.

The Sky Blues were backs to the wall from that moment on as Wolves sensed defeat at the Ricoh Arena and all their hard work appeared to have been thrown away when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake was upended in the final moments of the game.

The striker who has scored 20 goals this season stepped up but failed to beat Westwood, who dived low to his right to make an excellent last-gasp save.

Norwich City 1 - 2 Bristol City

Bristol City won their fourth game on the spin as they ended Bryan Gunn`s unbeaten record at Carrow Road. The signs were good for the Robins early on when Liam Fontaine hit the bar from an excellent corner by Michael McIndoe.

They had the lead just before the quarter of an hour mark when Lee Johnson worked well with Nicky Maynard down the right before he squared the ball for midfielder Cole Skuse who finished with aplomb from close range.

Norwich were level barely ten minutes later when Sammy Clingan`s free kick caused untold worry in the Robins rearguard with Carl Cort nodding against the left hand upright, before full back Jonathan Grounds coasted in to tap in his second in two games.

A big turning point occurred shortly before half time when David Marshall`s woeful clearance fell to Dele Adebola. The veteran forward drove towards goal before being upended by Gary Dohery - Mr D`Urso had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and giving the defender his marching orders. Bradley Orr slammed the penalty home to hand Bristol City the lead.

Orr was then let off the hook when he hauled down his man in the box in the second period and Mr D`Urso somehow turned a blind eye to the incident that raised the ire of Norwich boss Gunn.

Nigel Clough seems to have turned the tide at Pride Park with three successive wins propelling them away from the relegation zone. Rob Hulse`s brace put Plymouth to the sword, with Paul Sturrock`s Argyle not winning since Boxing Day.

It was Gary Teale however that handed the visitors the lead. The former Plymouth loanee let fly with a right footed effort from distance which cannoned into the net off the cross bar. From then on matters appeared to worsen for the hosts who clearly didn`t take in Paul Sturrock` half time team talk.

Rob Hulse slid the ball home between defender and goalkeeper just a minute after the break, before more good work by Teale this time down the left found the former West Bromwich Albion man in space to tap home his second of the game.

Reading 0 - 0 Preston North End

Reading`s abysmal goalscoring run continued at the Madejski Stadium in their goalless draw against Preston North End. The Royals have now not scored a goal in 269 minutes of football in a situation which threatens their automatic promotion prospects.

Steve Coppell has blamed teams visiting the Madejski Stadium for their lack of endeavour to attack Reading, but the Royals inability to break the Lilywhites down was plain for all to see as Alan Irvine`s men claimed a valuable point.

The most contentious moment of the game came when Jimmy Kebe`s cross shot was cleared away by defender Youl Mawene - but what referee Mike Jones didn`t spot was that the former Derby man used his hands to guide the ball away from the target.

The Sheffield derby once again produced and incident packed game, full of the thrills and spills one would expect from a steel city derby. What everyone concerned certainly didn`t expect was a Sheffield Wednesday win when you consider the last time they did the double over their rivals was the year that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, 95 years of hurt for the Owls.

All the form books were thrown out the window as Tommy Spurr slammed home from a Michael Gray pass to hand Wednesday a lead in the opening seconds of the game.

Moments later this game had all the hallmarks of a cracker as Arturo Lupoli`s flicked header found the back of the net on his Blades debut on loan from Fiorentina. All heads glanced towards the linesman as the ball dropped down off the cross bar, but was duly given in the fifth minute.

Approaching the half hour mark a goal was scored that was fit to win any game, let alone a game of this magnitude and it came from the right boot of Wednesday forward Marcus Tudgay. The former Derby man powered through the midfield on the counter attack after United were aggrieved that Brian Howard may have been brought down illegally.

Tudgay carried on regardless and unleashed a rasping right footed drive into the top left hand corner to ultimately hand the blue and white side of the city all three points, and all the bragging rights in Sheffield on Monday morning.

Jason Scotland took Ipswich by storm as he scored his 11th goal in ten games to help Swansea City`s incredible run continue. Swansea made it undefeated in a staggering 15 games to put themselves firmly in the playoff frame.

Back-up full back Albert Serran was making his league start of the season and it was his persistence down the right proved beneficial for the fist goal. He picked out in form striker Jason Scotland who in turn prodded home from close range to take his tally into double figures for the season.

Alan Quinn got away with a certain red card as he pulled away from his man down the right and flung out a calculated elbow - moments later Mr Wright compounded his error by booking Alan Tate for a foul on the aforementioned Quinn.

Swansea were looking excellent value for the lead and doubled their advantage with just over 15 minutes remaining and it was Scotland once more than was found by Nathan Dyer from a short corner, he jostled for position and bent the ball home left footed past Richard Wright.

The fixture was rounded off after Alan Quinn felled Jordi Gomez, and the Spaniard loanee picked himself up to fire a scintillating left footed free kick past the outstretched dive of Wright for three well-deserved points.

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